I am currently rebuilding a Big Block Chevy based engine. When I used to live in Knoxville, I once took a crankshaft to the machine shop and they wanted $250 and three weeks for turn the crank. I kept looking and found another shop which did the same work for $75 and took 24 hours. I have returned to that shop multiple times and they have always treated me fair and I came to find out that many of their work came from local racers. These were legitimate ‘car guys’ who did good work for a fair price.
I have found a huge difference in the price between machine shops; however, for simple engine bores and other rebuild tasks, they all seem to do similar work- the mentality of a machinist is to be very precise.
My question is where should I take my block and/or heads in the Dallas area?
City Motors is on Harry Hines, but they seem like they may be a ‘production’ shop that wants to nickel and dime for everything. Example, their price list reads $150 to prep a v-8 prior to going into the tank. If I take ‘block only’, I’m thinking that is 60 seconds worth of prep.
I know that there are the ‘Mexican’ rebuild shops near the junks yards near I-35 and Grand Pararie, but I have no experience with any of them.
I also have seen Engine Brothers on Craigslist and Coyote Engines on Yelp. I am focusing on ‘true engine machine shops’, but mechanics which are going to send the parts out.
The performance shops see a 502 Chevy Big Block and they see dollar signs as this is a common race engine, but I’m not trying to do anything crazy to this engine- basically stock with a performance cam, about 450hp.
I would have no issue paying someone at DMS, but to my knowledge, our machine shop is not set up to work on engine blocks. From what I understand, there are a number of specialized jigs and tools required to handle engines, not to mention I value the expertise of someone which does this type of work every day.
Any first hand advice?